Vidkun Quisling was such a traitor during Nazi Germany’s occupation of Norway during World War II that his name became synonomous with helping the enemy in English-language dictionaries. A new film about his fate right after Norway’s liberation opened in his homeland this week, at a time when Europe is once again at war.
The film, billed as a “psychological drama,” is chillingly relevant as new dictators try to wield power over Europe and war seems close once again. Quisling even spent time in Ukraine long before World War II broke out, actually trying to help famine victims, working on humanitarian aid projects with another Norwegian icon, Fridtjof Nansen, working as a diplomat in Russia and in other pursuits in Europe.
Quisling finally returned permanently to Norway in 1929 with a Ukrainian wife, served as defense minister in right-wing governments led by the predecessor of today’s rural-oriented Center Party and then founded his own fascist party known as Nasjonal Samling (NS). He campaigned against Bolshevism but NS failed to win representation in the Norwegian Parliament (Stortinget). He ultimately seized an opportunity to take over as “minister president” and leader of a Nazi-German-approved NS government nearly two years after Adolph Hitler’s forces invaded Norway on April 9, 1940. Norway’s elected government had fled to and carried on from London, and never officially surrendered to Hitler.
Five years later Quisling found himself in serious trouble after Hitler committed suicide and Germany lost the war. The new film, called Quisling – The Final Days, opens with Quisling delivering his last national radio broadcast right after Hitler’s death, and still hailing Hitler for allegedly trying to defeat Bolshevism. He still insisted that if Europe continued to avoid Bolshevism, “the future would show” that Hitler should get credit for the survival of European culture and civilization.
It didn’t take long, however, for Norwegian police to arrest Quisling and ultimately put him on trial for high treason. The film concentrates on his time in prison through the spring, summer and early autumn of 1945 and, not least, his sessions with a local pastor Peder Olsen (played by Anders Danielsen Lie). Olsen had been all but ordered to minister to Quisling’s sins and offer religious counseling. The problem was that Quisling had no regrets, no intention of atoning for any sins and insisting until his execution on October 24, 1945 that he was innocent of the crimes for which he was charged.
The lengthy film is full of intense conversations, confrontations and historic depictions of a downtrodden Oslo 80 years ago and after five years of shortages, allied bombings and round-ups of Jewish residents who were sent to Nazi death camps in Germany and Poland.
Reviews have been mixed in Oslo, where many Norwegians may not want to be reminded of Quisling. It was well-received, however, at the film festival in Toronto last week, where the film’s highly regarded director Erik Poppe was delighted with both the public’s applause and favourable reviews. Variety called it “perhaps (Poppe’s) strongest work” so far, while Poppe himself expressed “huge relief and a strong feeling of gratitude.” He said the film’s showing in Toronto “ended up with Canadians crying and Americans deeply moved.”
Officials at the Norwegian Film Institute called it a “great honour” just to be invited to the festival in Toronto with the Quisling film. It was also among three Norwegian films nominated to represent Norway at the Academy Awards in Los Angeles next spring. That honour ended up going to Armand, another new film featuring Norwegian actress Renate Reinsve and directed by the young Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel. It also won honours at the film festival in Cannes last spring.
NewsinEnglish.no/Nina Berglund
